ACT's annual Young Playwrights Festival returns March 11-13 for an eighth year, featuring a wonderful mix of dramatic and comedic new works from talented student writers ages 14 to 18.
ACT will present staged readings of eight new plays developed through ACT's Young Playwrights Program (YPP) serving upwards of 300 middle and high school students from King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Thurston counties throughout 14 greater Seattle-area schools and including students attending Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center's after school YPP program. Plays were selected by an artistic panel at ACT from approximately 260 plays by participating students. To prepare for the staged readings, each student playwright is partnered with a professional director, and actors, and participates in nearly 20 hours of rehearsal with his or her creative team. Each program will be performed twice during the three-day festival.
ACT Young Playwrights Festival Schedule:
Program A
Thursday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 13 at 1:00 p.m.
"Being a part of the 2009 Young Playwrights Festival, learning about all the different aspects of playwriting, having a teacher who never censored me, and being given a chance to see my work preformed and taken seriously gave me the confidence to identify myself as a writer," said 2009 Young Playwright Festival participant Rebecca Ehlers.
YPP offers greater Seattle-area students a high-quality, exciting language arts curriculum based on the art of playwriting. Professional playwright/teaching artists from ACT teach the rudiments of playwriting in participating area schools in the fall quarter of each school year. Concepts taught include dramatic structure, character creation, dialogue, action, subtext, point of view, understanding and developing dramatic conflict, writing a scene, generating ideas through improvisation, the importance of rewrites, and writing for an audience.
Each student playwright completes a 10- to 20-minute original play by the end of the session. The 10-week classroom portion of the YPP runs from September through December each year.
Started in 2002, YPP is a natural extension of ACT's commitment to new plays and playwrights. Since its inception, ACT's YPP has grown from 72 middle and high school students in six schools and an eight-week curriculum to more than 300 students in 15 schools and a 10-week/20-session curriculum.
About ACT
Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only local theatre dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.
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